Throughout the month of October, I’ll be sharing my ongoing journey of overcoming anxiety, and how the Lord has been working on my heart. It’s my prayer that the Lord will speak to you during this time, and draw you closer to Him, as we walk this road of life together. To follow along, and to catch up on any posts you might have missed, you can join me here at Fear or Faith, You Choose ~ A 31 Day Journey to Overcoming Anxiety.
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Do you every feel like you spend your time running around in circles and never getting anywhere? Going from one project, or one task to another, but nothing really getting anything accomplished?
Sometimes this happens to me and it can be very frustrating. When I sit back and look at what I’m doing wrong, I realize it’s often because I failed to plan.
I spent 11 years as a social worker helping the homeless, and the less fortunate. The last two years I worked, I was a Housing Specialist with The Salvation Army. I met with people in my office and in their homes, helping them to come up with a plan to get back on their feet, and become independent members of society. When we first met we would set up an initial case plan. We would talk about what they wanted to do in their lives and how they thought they could get there. Then we would meet weekly to talk about the smaller goals they wanted to set, that would help them reach their big goals. The goals could range from anything to filling out job applications, signing up for school, or trying to get their drivers license back. Many of them came from backgrounds where they didn’t learn how to do this, and it became a great disadvantage to them as adults.
The point being, they came from a place of “spinning their wheels”, or “running in circles”, to a place of moving forward, because they knew where they where going and how they where going to get there. The same approach needs to be used when we deal with things in our lives, and when we deal with such a sensitive topic as anxiety.
We first need to go to the Father in prayer and ask Him how He wants us to handle our anxiety problems. We need to ask Him, to open our eyes to what’s causing our problems, and solutions for how we can better manage them. On our own we are lost, it’s when we seek out God’s help that true healing from our anxiety can begin.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart: don’t try to figure out everything on you own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track. ~ Proverbs 3:5-6
In my life God opened my eyes to show me that anxiety came from many issues. Problems from my past, day to day struggles, and learning how to deal with Stage IV breast cancer all mingled together to create a swampy mess. The mixture of this would cause my mind to race, my hands to tremble, and tears to fall like rain.
It’s when I started to look at the why behind the anxiety, that I could start to move forward and try to deal with things in a more rational manner, and make an attempt at moving forward. By NO means, do I have it all together. But, I am better able to cope now that I take my concerns to God, and work things out with Him day by day.
If you’re facing issues with anxiety as well, a starting point is to go to God in prayer. It’s helpful to seek His will for why your anxiety is happening and where healing should begin. Over the next few days I’ll be talking about causes I have found for anxiety and how they effect us in different ways.
As I write out my feelings over the next few weeks, I want you to know that I am not a mental health professional. These posts are not meant to be a cure all, or to treat what you are going through. It’s just me sharing from my heart on how God has been working with me, in the hopes that you may draw closer to Him, and gain some helpful insight as well. If you are going through serious mental health issues please seek the counsel of a mental health professional.
Photo Credit: Saurabh B via photopin CC
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